I'm Driving Down Highway 40 in My Big Ol' Pickup Truck

On Monday I ended my two week Holiday vacation to St. Louis with a 12 and a half hour drive back to Houston. The road is a lonely place and can play tricks on a man's mind. After 8 hours watching the road's twists and turns, or straightness, my mind began to wander. Perhaps it was from the pills I got from that trucker in the bathroom of a McDonald's while passing through Little Rock, I can't be sure. However, on my travels I saw entire houses floating in front of me as if they were trying to get out of Arkansas just as fast as I was and away from bat country.
I guess I should mention a bit about my trip while I'm writing. It's always good to spend time with family for the Holidays. I guess that's what was lacking on Thanksgiving. Three guys trying to quickly thaw a turkey and cook it on the same day just didn't drum up the same memories/feelings/whatever as when surrounded by family. When I lived in St. Louis I took for granted the fact that much of my family were just a short drive away. They're still just a phone call or an email away, but there's nothing quite like being at a gathering and getting drunk with everyone else and trying to stop slurring so much as you talk to the elder relatives who don't hear very well any more.
I saw a few friends, the ones that called me back at least, and it led me to realize that I've become REALLY fucking sick of school. Everyone is working a real job or looking for one and I'm still trying to figure out how to save on textbooks. Just saying that I'm still in school makes me feel childish and not as mature as those who work full time.
On a side note, I got some help from a friend in buying a new iPod. I got a black, 60GB, Video iPod with my name laser etched on the back. With my friend's help I was able to get it for the regular price of a 30GB iPod. Not too shabby.
Back to the drive home, this post is disregarding any attempts at continuity or flow. The floating houses that I mentioned were actually FEMA houses being shipped by semi to... I'm not really sure. I saw a few in Missouri, but they didn't have a big yellow banner hanging from behind it as the others I saw later. If I had seen the signs in Missouri, I would have guessed they were on their way to Louisiana. However, I saw them driving west through Arkansas which is a bit out of the way. They seemed to travel in packs too, or at least they were trying to. If any of those drivers happen to read this here's a message for them: "Pick a fucking lane and stick to it!" For what seemed like an eternity I followed to floating houses that were driving down the center of the two lane highway nearly the entire time. Once in a while they would go to one side or another, I'd flash my lights to get their attention and then try to pass them only to have them try and return to the center of the highway or the lane I was in as if they were trying to throw me off the road. For a short time I thought they had been doing this to everyone when suddenly a car behind me made it by not one, but both floating houses and escaped the vinyl siding gauntlet without so much as a twitch from the semi drivers as if they were going to try and regain their control of too much highway.
A few questions popped into my head as I was following this idiots. First was, "Where the fuck are these guys going? Louisiana is south of Arkansas, not west." Second was, "Why the fuck do we need to drive houses around when they can be built in the state in which the are destined to reside?" I think the answer to this one lies in some bastard politician in the Senate adding some pork to a bill written to try and stop leaving so many kids behind. "I'll sign this bill as long as my home state of ______ gets to build all of the houses needed by the victims of the hurricanes and the local truckers get to drive them around like drunken assholes to the wrong locations." I've watched CSPAN for a few minutes in my life, I know how they talk.
Whoa, this got to be a bit longer than I had expected. It is time for me to return to the task of loading my collection of CDs to my iPod so I can be ready for any musical situation as long as there is no need for country (and western for a few out there) or rap.